A Ukrainian citizen who was recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and attempted to create his own group of informants was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Dec. 19.

According to the SBU, the convicted spy had a long history of fighting with Russian forces or their proxies, spanning as far back as the war in the early 1990s in Transnistria, the Russian-backed breakaway region of Moldova.

The man was previously wanted by Ukrainian authorities in connection to his role in attempting to instigate pro-Russian riots in Odesa in 2014, following which he fled to Russian-controlled Transnistria.

The SBU said that he was recruited by FSB agents while in Transnistria in 2019.

After the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he attempted to create his own network of informants and to recruit SBU agents to gather information about the location of Ukrainian troops in the south of Ukraine, according to the report.

The SBU lured him into Ukraine using the pretense of SBU agents pretending to be potential accomplices. He was then detained in Odesa Oblast.

The investigation was carried out in coordination with the Odesa Oblast Prosecutor’s Office.

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